But behind the cloud of he said’s and she said’s being volleyed back and forth, Patrick Emerling quietly sat celebrating.

Emerling finished second to Doug Coby in the F.W. Webb 100 Saturday at NHMS, marking a career best finish on the series for the Orchard Park, N.Y. driver.

It was the first podium finish for the 23-year old Emerling, who is in his fifth full-time season racing with the Whelen Modified Tour.

Before Saturday, Emerling’s previous best series finish was a fourth at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July of this year. Of his six top-five finishes in 67 career events, three have come at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He has finished in the top six in four of his last five starts at the track.

“We’ve been historically been doing pretty well here,” Emerling said. “So we’ve been finishing in the top-five quite frequently at this track. So we’ve just been working on getting better and better every time we show up here.”

With two events remaining this season, Emerling now sits fifth in the standings. Before this season his best finish in the standings was 10th, last season. Emerling’s team is led by crew chief Jan Leaty, a former standout driver with the series.

“We’ve just been focusing on trying to step up our game,” Emerling said. “I have been struggling for years on this series. It seems like, last year we did start doing a little bit better and we did progress this season. It is tough to run against these guys here. The competition is just so strong. We’ve just been working on stepping up our game. The car is kept at my house and I have a couple guys … that help me maintain the car. I do the setup, well me and Jan get together for the setup and stuff. We’ve just been working on getting better and getting some better racecars for the future here.”